APC: Tinubu’s influence on the brink.

Despite crisis in the country involving the kidnapped Dapchi girls, the ruling party took out time to meet and deliberate on party issues and make decisions which are far reaching in the operations of the party. Meanwhile, the issue of kidnapped school girls has taken off on international tangent, with the United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Antonio Guterres, aghast on hearing the news.”We very much hope that the perpetrators will be brought to justice, and just as importantly, that the girls will be found and returned to safety”, he said.

Meanwhile, like the proverbial Nero who fiddles while his country is burning, the ruling party took out time to meet to discuss the party’s impending convention. The party have not converged sing President Muhammadu Buhari came into power, partly due to fears of implosion and partly due to the health and slow pace of presidential activities. While the police and the military are trading blames on why the army withdrew and dismantled roadblocks just before the attacks, the ruling party was busy clicking glasses.

But the National working committee of the party appears to have deviated from the presidential speech to declare that the tenure of the party chairman, John Oyegun, and other party officials must have their terms extended by one year to prevent crisis during their upcoming convention, particularly in the wake of the reconciliation of warring parties by the National Leader, Bola Tinubu. Buhari has recently given Tinubu the job of reconciling party chieftains. But he wanted to use one stone to kill two birds, and complained bitterly that Oyegun is sabotaging his efforts. He went short of giving the Party Chairman matching others, a situation that resulted in an invitation of Oyegun by Buhari.

The decision of the National working committee to extend the tenure of Oyegun and others is therefore a blow on the political weight of Asiwaju Tinubu. Recently, his wife, Oluremi Tinubu, a Senator, lamented that APC used and dumped her husband. Now it is worse: he is dumped in the mud.

But the decision is purely unconstitutional and if sustained will result in litigation and quest for legal interpretations. Sources, however, insists that the decision will eventually be overturned, and that Tinubu will have the last laugh. Even then, the convention will be interesting, and he may still have an ace up his sleeve.